Calle de El Salvador

Sol

The name comes from the Venerable Congregation of Missionary Priests of the Saviour of the World, which kept a monastery on nearby calle de la Concepción Jerónima from 1644 and around 1658 set up its own oratory and house behind the Court Prison, on or near the site of the present street.

South of the Plaza Mayor, in the Sol quarter, calle de El Salvador runs a short course between calle Imperial and plaza de la Provincia. Its entire eastern side is covered by a single façade: that of the Palacio de Santa Cruz, which Philip IV had built between 1629 and 1636 to a design by Juan Gómez de Mora, not as a diplomatic seat but as the court’s magistrates' hall and prison. Today it houses the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The name comes from a less visible neighbour. Behind the prison building, around 1658, the oratory and house of the Saviour’s missionaries were established. The congregation stayed until 1767, when Charles III handed it the Jesuit novitiate on calle de San Bernardo. Owners and land use changed, but the religious name held firm.

Its names

  • sin nombre documentadohasta ca. 1656
  • Calle del Salvador / Calle de El Salvadorca. 1656 – actualidad
Sources (7)

Crossings